We finally agree with the NY Daily News!! The NYC BOE is challenged when it comes to hiring good people for the public schools of New York City.

The word is out: unless you are willing to harm special education, minority children, and/or "kids left behind", or watch as others do it without saying anything, then you should look elsewhere than the NYC BOE for employment. Oh yes - you can add that you must want to be suddenly accused of something that you never did and have your career wiped out in seconds, to spend years sitting in a "rubber room" doing nothing, even though you get paid. Ed Stancik, where are you?

A history of failure at IS 172
Tuesday, March 28th, 2006

LINK

The solemn pledge of school leaders to treat our city's children as precious as their own rings hollow in the streets of Harlem.

Last week, the team at Tweed made years of chaos at Harlem's Intermediate School 172 a lot worse by hiring a new principal, Curtis Andrews, two days after (emphasis added - Ed) he was indicted on federal fraud charges in connection with a failed charter school in Philadelphia.

Andrews has been yanked from his new assignment, leaving 600-plus uptown kids and their parents to ponder, once more, the crummy hand that fate and the Education Department have dealt them.
The problems at IS 172 date back years. Safety is so flawed that Teach for America, the education "Peace Corps" that sends volunteers into urban schools, pulled its people from IS 172 this month - the first time it has walked out of a school. Precious little learning is going on: 97% of the eighth-graders flunked the state reading exam last year, and 89% could not pass the state math test.
But Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who has threatened to shut down IS
172 if things don't improve, should recognize that a few adults, including members of his staff, have also failed.
The New York Leadership Academy, Klein's much-touted minischool for principals, somehow decided the best man to fix IS 172 was Andrews, who had run the Center for Economics and Law, a Philadelphia charter school, into the ground.
Andrews, who was recruited to New York through a now-discontinued outreach program of the Leadership Academy, got a standard background check, which apparently didn't include running his name through Google, the Internet search engine, and Nexis, a media database - a five-minute search that would have turned up half a dozen articles recounting Andrews' rocky tenure as principal and chief administrative officer of the Philadelphia school.
A May 2003 story in The Philadelphia Inquirer reported the revocation of the school's charter. An Associated Press story that same year noted that under Andrews' tenure, "teachers periodically threatened to quit enmasse. Standardized test results weren't reported to the state. Fire code violations once forced cancellation of classes for two weeks. Pennsylvania's auditor general cited the school for bookkeeping problems."
The Inquirer reported last year that the charter school's records were turned over to the FBI, which led to last week's indictment of Andrews for allegedly overbilling the Philadelphia school system for $200,000 - money paid for students even after they had left the school.
And two days after the indictment, Andrews - who potentially faces up to 120 years behind bars and a $1.5million fine - was named the head of IS 172. Parents in Harlem deserve an explanation of the flawed background check, and a new principal who is the best of the best.
Like all public systems, the Education Department has a legal duty to act in loco parentis, in place of parents. But if the mess at IS 172 can be compared to any sort of parenting, it's abuse and neglect. The kids surely deserve better.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/403462p-
341737c.html

and,
New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com

Principal's got no principles?
BY NICOLE BODE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, March 27th, 2006

The new principal of a troubled Harlem school has been stripped of his post - after the Daily News revealed charges he took almost $200,000 from a Philadelphia school.
Curtis Andrews, who was named head of Intermediate School 172 on Thursday, will be reassigned to the regional office effective this morning, education officials said.
"He's being reassigned pending the disposition of the charges," said Andrew Jacob, a spokesman for the Education Department. "He failed to inform us on both the investigation and the indictment."
Jacob did not say who would be named interim principal.
Education Department officials said Andrews concealed the probe dating back to his time at a failing Philadelphia charter school.
He was indicted last Tuesday on six counts of wire fraud - two days before he was named permanent principal of IS 172.
Andrews, 58, has been acting principal at the tumultuous school since last spring.
Concerns over safety recently came to a head when Teach for America instructors pulled out of the W. 129th St. school, calling IS 172 too dangerous.
Andrews did not return repeated calls. His lawyer, George Newman, declined to comment.
Parents and teachers hailed Andrews' ouster, but said he should never have gotten the job in the first place.
"When he was first hired, the investigation was not only pending, it was public knowledge," said English teacher George Ticoras.
"Who cares where they send him, I don't even want to hear it," said Jimmie Brown, parents association president. "Don't come to me and lie to me, you didn't see it in the background checks. I'm not letting it ride. This is disgusting."

His past tags new principal
BY JONATHAN LEMIRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, March 26th, 2006

The principal tapped to turn around one of Harlem's most troubled schools has been charged with defrauding the Philadelphia school system of almost $200,000, the Daily News has learned.
Curtis Andrews was named principal of Intermediate School 172 on Thursday - two days after he was indicted in Pennsylvania on six counts of wire fraud stemming from his time at the helm of a failed charter school.

News of the indictment came as a surprise to Department of Education officials, who said last night they would launch an investigation.

"He had passed a background check indicating he had no criminal record," said department spokesman David Cantor. "But we're looking into it further and will take further action as appropriate."

Andrews, 58, was made acting principal of the W. 129th St. school last spring. IS 172 made headlines earlier this month when it was abandoned by Teach for America instructors for being too dangerous.

Last week, Andrews was given the principalship permanently over the objections of more than 40 faculty members, who sent a protest petition to the Education Department.

"For months, those of us in the trenches have been trying to alert the region about problems with this individual," said English teacher George Ticoras. "They didn't listen to us, but we're hoping they'll listen to the feds."

"The staff this year is completely demoralized," said another English teacher, Joseph Menzel. "It's really impossible for us to do our job with the level of the discipline problem."

Andrews was named principal of Philadelphia's Center for Economics and Law High School in 2001 and a short time later became its chief administrative officer, a Philadelphia school official said.

In the spring of 2003, the Philadelphia School District - which granted the school's charter but did not employ Andrews - turned the school's financial records over to the U.S. attorney's office after suspicions of financial misconduct arose, the official said.

Prosecutors accused Andrews of overbilling the school district by falsely inflating the number of students attending.

"These are public funds designed to improve the lives of young people through education," U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said in announcing the indictment. "When the system is manipulated like this, students suffer and taxpayers are cheated."

Andrews did not return repeated calls for comment yesterday. His lawyer, George Newman, declined to comment when reached in Philadelphia.

The underperforming Center for Economics and Law did not have its charter renewed in June 2003, displacing nearly 300 students.

03-21-06 -- News Release
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
EASTERN DISTRICT, PENNSYLVANIA
LINK

FORMER PHILADELPHIA CHARTER SCHOOL PRINCIPAL CHARGED WITH FRAUD March 21, 2006 - PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Patrick L. Meehan and United States Department of Education Inspector General John P. Higgins, Jr., today announced the filing of an Indictment* charging Curtis Andrews with six counts of wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud the Philadelphia School District.
According to the indictment, between May 2000 and June 2003, Andrews was the principal and chief administrative officer of the Center for Economics and Law ("CEL"), a charter school located in Philadelphia and operating within the Philadelphia School District (the "School District"). As a charter school operating within the School District, CEL was funded in part with public taxpayer dollars it received from the School District. The amount of funding CEL received from the School District depended upon the number of students attending CEL.

Notably, the School District relied upon charter schools like CEL to report their enrollment information honestly and accurately so that these schools received the appropriate amount of funding.
As the principal of CEL, Andrews engaged in a scheme to defraud the School District by causing falsely inflated student enrollment data to be submitted to the School District, thereby causing the School District to provide funding to CEL to which CEL was not entitled. As Andrews knew, limitations in the School District's computer network prevented the School District from knowing that a student had left CEL, where that student had transferred to another school outside of the School District (such as a parochial school or a school outside of Philadelphia) or had dropped out of school altogether. Andrews exploited these limitations in the School District's computer network by directing his staff to report to the Network that students who had either transferred to another school outside of the School District, or dropped out of school altogether, continued to attend CEL, when in fact as Andrews knew, these students did not attend CEL. As a result of the defendant's scheme to defraud, the School District overpaid CEL approximately $200,000 in public education funds.

"Not only did he defraud the school district but he dragged his staff into his scheme," said Meehan. "These are public funds designed to improve the lives of young people through education. When the system is manipulated like this, students suffer and taxpayers are cheated."
DEFENDANT
ADDRESS
AGE [Date of Birth]
CURTIS ANDREWS Sicklerville, NJ Age 58
If convicted the defendant faces a maximum possible sentence of 120 years imprisonment, a $1.50 million fine, 3 years of supervised release and a $600 special assessment.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and has been assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Leo R. Tsao.

UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
EASTERN DISTRICT, PENNSYLVANIA
Suite 1250, 615 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106 Contact:
RICH MANIERI
Media Contact
215.861.8525

The NYC Board of Education routinely hide the crimes of their employees. The case of Jerry Olshaker is a beaute, as he was convicted of having sex with a girl from the age she was 8 until she was 14...and after this information was discovered by Ed Stancik, the NYC BOE tried to keep Olshaker in his job, as Administrator of the Office of Support Services in the Division of Personnel:

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE SEX CRIME CONVICTION OF FORMER PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATOR JERRY OLSHAKER AND THE CONCEALMENT OF THE CONVICTION BY THE DIVISION OF PERSONNEL

If you go to The Municipal Library at 31 Chambers Street in New York City (across the street from NYC BOE headquarters, Tweed), ask for "The Gill Commission" report, and "Investigating the Investigators". These documents describe the very same crimes and coverups going on now, and the Gill Commission wrote their report in 1989. Note the hundreds of computers hidden in the closets of schools so that the staff can help themselves.

And then we have this approach by a lawyer for a predatory teacher:

Teacher-Student Sex Ban Challenged
HARTFORD, Conn., Sept. 22, 2006

LINK

(AP) The Connecticut state Supreme Court has heard arguments from the lawyer for a former teacher that the state law that bans teachers from having sex with students is unconstitutional.

Attorney Richard Emanuel represents Van McKenzie Adams who was convicted of having sex with two students in New Haven.

Adams, who taught Latin at Hill Regional Career High School, was 40 at the time. The students in the second-degree sexual assault case were 16 and 17.

Emanuel told the justices Thursday that the state law under which Adams was convicted is unconstitutional and "overly broad."

"I am not here to assert that teachers have a fundamental constitutional right to engage in sexual intercourse with their students," Emanuel said. "They should not exploit their position to coerce students into relationships involving sexual intercourse."

Emanuel pointed out that the court had previously ruled that people age 16 or older are "deemed to be adults for sexual purposes." He said such conduct is "protected by the right of privacy."

Assistant States Attorney Bruce Lockwood argued on behalf of the state that a sexual relationship between a teacher and a student "cannot be consensual" because of the power and authority teachers have over students.

"The state has a legitimate interest in providing a safe school environment for elementary and high school students," Lockwood said. He added that prohibiting teachers from having sex with their students is part of this approach.